Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal held a two-hour-long meeting with concerned ministers and government officials at his official residence at Baluwatar Friday morning.[break]
"The prime minister has directed the Ministry of Finance to expedite preparations with a view to unveil new budget by the third week of November," said a press statement issued by the prime minister´s press advisor Bishnu Rijal.
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, Minister for Law and Justice Prem Bahadur Singh, Finance Secretary Rameshwar Khanal, Law Secretary Madhav Poudel and Secretary at Prime Minister´s Office Dr Trilochan Upreti were present at the meeting. Deputy Attorney General duo Surya Koirala and Pushpa Koirala and advocates Agni Kharel and Tika Ram Bhattarai were also present at the meeting.
The prime minister is scheduled to hold a meeting with the leaders of parties that support his coalition at 1 pm, Saturday. The prime minister has also called a cabinet meeting for Saturday afternoon. "The cabinet meeting is likely to announce the date for unveiling new budget," said a source close to the prime minister.
The government is mulling presenting new budget on November 19, added the source.
In the meantime, addressing a function organized by CPN-UML´s youth organization in Bharatpur, Friday afternoon, Finance Minister Pandey informed that his ministry is preparing to bring a Rs 336 billion budget. "We would have prepared Rs 350 billion budget had the government been allowed to present it in July. Now it became impractical due to the delay," he said.
Minister Pandey informed that the government finally decided to bring in the budget after consulting legal experts on the matter at the prime minister´s official residence in Baluwatar on Friday morning. Legal experts present at the meeting had advised the prime minister that the government try to present budget in the parliament in the first place and make a formal request to the opposition parties not to obstruct the budget if there were any protests against it.
A participant at the meeting said the prime minister was advised to adopt alternative methods to bring new budget if the opposition parties continued obstructions. "We suggested to the prime minister to bring the budget even through ordinance if needed," said the participant.
According to him, the new budget aims at increasing allocation for the educational sector, allocating money to construct micro-hydro projects in 1000 VDCs and constructing playgrounds at every VDCs across the country. Likewise, the new budget has incorporated a program to build a four-lane East-West highway along the hilly regions with a plan to establish 20 new towns in the hills.
Among other things, the new budget will lower the age-limit to 50 years from existing 60 years for widows to be eligible to receive state allowance and introduce a policy of tax waiver for certain period to those who want to open standard hotels to make the Nepal Tourism Year 2011 a success.
The government has failed to present new budget supposed to be presented before mid-July as the Maoists have threatened to obstruct such move arguing that caretaker government can not present budget.
Meanwhile, leaders from nine small parties have urged the UCPN (Maoist) to allow presenting annual budget despite the government´s caretaker status.
"If the budget is not presented in the House latest by November 30, it will be an act against the Nepali people´s right to life," said a statement jointly issued by leaders from nine political parties represented in the parliament after a meeting at Singha Durbar Friday.
The parties said though a caretaker government can´t introduce new policies and programs it has become essential to bring in annual budget to give continuity to the development projects which are under construction stage and to safeguard the country´s economy from a collapse.
The leaders present at the meeting included Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani of Rastriya Janashakti Party, Pratibha Rana of Rastriya Prajatantra Party, C P Mainali of CPN (ML), Minister for Law Prem Bahadur Singh, who represents the Socialist Democratic Janta Party, Binod Dangi of Nepal Family Party, Kalpana Rana of CPN (Samyukta), Krishna Bahadur Rai of Chure Bhawar Rastriya Ekata Party, Raj Kumar Nalbo Limbu of Samyukta Loktantrik Rastriya Party and Nasir Siddiqi of Madhesi People´s Rights Forum.
Not right move: UCPN (Maoist)
The UCPN (Maoist) has expressed its reservations over the government plan to bring in budget in between November 16 -23, while sticking to its previous stance that a caretaker government should not do so.
"It is not a right move of the caretaker government to present budget ahead of the three-party meeting scheduled for November 15," said Maoist Vice chairman Narayankaji Shrestha, adding, "There should be discussions on alternatives to bail the country out of budget crisis only if the meeting does not yield any results."
Shrestha added that the government did not consult the UCPN (Maoist) before planning to present budget in the third week of November.
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